Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
In an official UN publication called Guide to the Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth, the following law is advocated as necessary for the protection of children’s rights. I quote, “Explore enacting bans on all handguns to civilians or certain cheap models that are attractive to youth.”

To grasp the potential impact of these suggested laws on U.S. citizens, it is essential to understand the interplay between treaties and state laws. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution provides that, I quote, “all Treaties made … under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

This means that state law must always give way to treaties. For example, in the case Missouri v. Holland, the state challenged the constitutionality of federal interference with Missouri hunting laws concerning migratory birds. Federal game officials had intervened in Missouri based on a treaty with Canada. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the treaty, and not Missouri state law, was supreme.

Thus, even if current state laws permit children to go hunting with a license and own and discharge firearms for these purposes, such laws would have to give way to a treaty that contends that firearms should “never be accessible to children.”

I’m Mike Farris.